American Airlines no longer consistently flies between Los Angeles and Toronto. However, for a brief period this September, American will be relaunching the route. Not just with any plane, but rather with the carrier’s ultra-premium Airbus A321Ts, which are typically used for premium transcontinental routes (and they’re eventually being phased out).
In this post:
American Airlines’ special Los Angeles to Toronto service
American Airlines will be bringing back service between Los Angeles and Toronto… but only between September 4 and September 9, 2024, and then again on September 15, 2024. American is operating this route for seven days in order to fly the Hollywood crowd to Toronto for the Toronto Film Festival, which is being held over those dates.
The flight will be operated with the following schedule:
AA148 Los Angeles to Toronto departing 9:40AM arriving 5:30PM
AA148 Toronto to Los Angeles departing 6:25PM arriving 9:02PM
So not only is American bringing back this route for roughly a week, but American will use its specially configured A321T aircraft for it.
This isn’t the first year that American is operating this special service. The airline has been operating this route every year since 2016, except it was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
What are American’s A321Ts like?
American’s Airbus A321T has just 102 seats. First class features 10 reverse herringbone seats with direct aisle access from all seats.
Business class features 20 fully flat business class seats, in a 2-2 configuration.
Economy class features just 72 seats, half of which are Main Cabin Extra seats. So it’s a pretty comfy configuration.
Since this is now a “premium” route, business and first class class passengers will be eligible to use American’s excellent Flagship Lounge at LAX. Unfortunately American’s Flagship First Dining at LAX has permanently closed, or else first class passengers would get access to that.
Bottom line
American Airlines will bring back its special Toronto Film Festival flight, as the airline will fly its specially configured Airbus A321Ts between Los Angeles and Toronto for around one week in September. I find this to be a pretty cool route, and I imagine it’s pretty popular with the target audience.
Anyone planning on flying American’s A321T between Los Angeles and Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival?
Not the first time AA has used the 321T for a limited run on LAX-YYZ for the Toronto Film Festival.
yeah, that's what Ben said in this post. But not in the headline ;-)
Cool route but I wonder why there isn’t demand for LAX-YYZ year round? Both are large hubs, and Air Canada manages to run the route 5x daily as of right now (along with WestJet 2x and Porter). So it feels like one daily AA flight would be sustainable year round?
Because AA would rely almost entirely on LAX POS. AA has no hub obviously at YYZ and there is no connectivity there.
Nonsense. AA now sells in Toronto for connectivity beyond CLT, PHL, JFK, MIA, ORD, DFW. Toronto POS would sell connecting itineraries beyond LAX to numerous destinations.
That assumes that AA still considers LAX a hub (it might be, in name only). They seem to prefer to shove everything through DFW. There’s hardly any connectivity to any market served by LAX that DFW doesn’t already serve.
Considering that even JFK-SFO is on AA A321T life support, I can't imagine that LAX-YYZ does any better.
This was will be the last year on the 321 T. What will the Hollywood elite fly in 2025? PJs is my guess.
Only few can afford or have their studio pay for a PJ. Some airline will get clever with what they offer. AA used to own the entertainment contracts (because they have long been the only airline that had an F cabin ex-LAX to NYC primarily, which is required for the A talent contracts), and likely fills these special services YYZ flights with those accounts...but not sure if DL has perhaps made headway into the entertainment...
Only few can afford or have their studio pay for a PJ. Some airline will get clever with what they offer. AA used to own the entertainment contracts (because they have long been the only airline that had an F cabin ex-LAX to NYC primarily, which is required for the A talent contracts), and likely fills these special services YYZ flights with those accounts...but not sure if DL has perhaps made headway into the entertainment industry contracts. I wouldn't be surprised if DL is making headway into that sector...